Tuesday, 27 January 2015

It is a Mixed Media challenge that focuses on the 12 signs of the Zodiac. Each month I will bring you new inspiration to help your creativity flow.

Deborah has very kindly asked me to be a Guest Designer this month to help get the challenge started so without further ado here is my project.

Used an online programme which you can add any words and a picture to and it will give you something like the above image. Printed this out, you can see how i used it later in the post.

I do hope you can see who this is, any guesses? It is of course Abraham Lincoln who was born on February 12 1809, an Aquarian and a great American President.

I have read a few articles to research this great American President and have found that he thought outside the box, had oodles of compassion, he was a visionary, literally and extremely intuitive, eccentric, a revolutionary for the greater good.

Aquarians are Air signs, their colours are typically shades of blue particularly turquoise or sky blue but they are often associated with water colours as their symbol is the water bearer.

Took a piece of water colour paper, sprayed it with water and added shavings from Inktense Blocks in blues and greens which i moved around with my fingers. Made the marks with the bottom of a paint brush.

While the paper was still very wet i placed a size 10 Tag over the top and used a brayer to apply pressure which transferred the colour and the pattern onto the card stock.

Added a layer of Snowflake Fresco paint using a brayer over the top of both the tag and the background to soften it slightly.

Coloured the peel offs with Kaiserfusion alcohol pens placed a few on the left side to represent bubbles.

Macro shot of the bubble colours.

Found some fern style peel offs, again coloured them with the alcohol pens and added to the Tag, coloured the little areas in with Sakura Glaze Pens.

This macro shows you how i coloured all the peel off rings with a mix of Rainbow Glazes. When dry i went around all the bubbles with a white then a black pen adding shading and highlighting where needed.

Here is the completed Tag, i cut out the image of Mr Lincoln layered him onto silver mirror card then added some more peel offs to his eyes which just happened to be the correct shape for the Aquarius symbol, oh yes and i coloured them black with alcohol pens.

Also used The Journey stamp from Stampotique to add some beautiful text to the background, i then stamped this onto a black piece of paper and cut out the sentiment we are spiritual beingswhich i layered onto a piece of coloured card stock and then a piece from an on the edge die from Sizzix.

I really hope you have enjoyed your visit today, i have enjoyed creating this for you and hope it offers some inspiration towards your own project, now if i was you i would head over to Deborah’s Blog to enter and get yourself some wonderful DecoArt goodies!

Used Ruby, Renaissance and Aquamarine TG through the stencil on the front and the Fired Brick and Iced Spruce DI pads on the reverse of the card and the envelope. Added a shadow using the Signo white pen around the poppy heads and outlined the word with a black pen.

Claudine’s APC Challenge is passing by very quickly, we are already on week 19 only 7 more to go! Still time to join in so come on over and have some fun!

Claudine says:

I wanted to go with a Steampunk/Time theme this week. If you know me, you now I really love Steampunk, although I love it, I don't do it enough. So this week is all about Steampunk!

Recently i purchased some Shimmer Sheetz, never seen them before so had to visit You Tube for some inspiration and i found one idea that i liked very much.

The Shimmer Sheetz are quite easy to cut, they are made from Mylar and take embossing very well.

I cut one of the copper coloured Sheetz to the size of the playing cards and then ran it through a Cuttlebug Gears folder. Got a piece of 280 sandpaper and rubbed off some of the colour.

The technique that i liked from You Tube was taking some Blending Fluid and rubbing it onto areas you wish to remove the colour from. If you zoom into the images you will see those areas a little more clearly.

Would like to welcome my new Followers Elly and Wanda, thank you ladies! I will be doing a draw very soon to celebrate having over 100 Followers, so keep a look out for the post as i will be giving away a little something to one of you.

Thanks for dropping by today, i hope you have enjoyed your visit and look forward to your lovely comments.

Thursday, 22 January 2015

Debs has chosen

Glitter and Sparkle

as her theme. I do hope you can find the time to pop over and join in.

My stash includes a stencil from the lovely people at Glitzcraft who are sponsoring our Challenges for 2015. This one was designed by myself and made for me by Glitzcraft, did you know they have this service available, if you have a need for something of your own design do get in touch with them.

However a day later i realised that the plaque needed a little more so added a stamped border of dots and used a black large tip Sharpie pen to go around the edges.

I am now happy with the completed plaque.

I hope your visit has shown you just what can be achieved in the 15 minutes, please come and join us and let us see what wonderful creations you can make in the time too.

Remember to add the time it took you to create your project within the body of your post.

It takes time for the Design Team to visit the entries and add comments and even more time when we have to ask for the time to be entered in your post and then revisit to comment again, i hope you can understand why we are asking for your help.

Please visit my other Teamies to see what wonderful inspiration they have also provided.

Started by adding two different flower peel off wastes to an A4 sheet of white card stock.

Then i decided to add a little texture paste and add embossing powder over the top, a technique that a lovely lady called Pamellia uses a lot. It worked well and will try this again, thanks Pamellia for the inspiration to try this.

Added a few layer of Pan Pastels and sealed them before adding ay other embellishments.

I forgot to take pictures along the way, there are many layers, stencils, colouring with KaiserFusion alcohol pens, die cuts one using corrugated board and completed with a Sharpie pen border and a little Treasure Gold added to the edges and the glittered pieces.

I will try to use up a lot of my peel off waste like this as they work as a base layer.

Hope you feel like using up your peel off waste too, let me know how you use yours up, it will be interesting to know and i might learn a new technique or two!

Used an old set of Tim Holtz Visual Artistry stamps to create the background using Sepia Versafine Ink.

Cut a piece from the master board, added it onto another layer of kraft card, went over the edges with black Distress Ink.

Adhered this to a 4 x 4 inch card and added the sentiment from a freebie set of stamps. Added a line around Umbrella Man, added a Stabilo All black pencil line to the outside and then added a little water to add a little smudging.

Stamped the back of the card with the car, the envelope with Umbrella Man and added an insert also stamped with Umbrella Man.

Wednesday, 14 January 2015

Wednesday is a smiley day, the day when a new Challenge comes from the Stampotique Designers Challenge Blog. This week it is Kaz Boughton who has set the challenge and she says:I'd like to see some bright colours to cheer us up in the dim days of January.

Put a tiny blob of Primary cyan, Raw Sienna and Metallic Silver onto a mat and sprayed a little water onto them. Placed the APC face down into the colours and then moved it around a little, left on one side to dry but got impatient and used a heat gun hence the bubbles in the silver.

I am so in love with the way these paints have mixed together, will be using this combination again!

Repeated the technique again using Quinacridone Gold, Primary Magenta and Teal Hue, added a little Primary Cyan and Interference Gold after the card had dried as it needed a little more pop.

The final colours before the stamping.

Stamped the huge flower from the Inkadinkado set using Archival Black Ink, didn’t add colour as i wanted a more ethereal look, the sentiment is from Paper Artsy.

The flower was coloured using Derwent Graphik Line Painter pens. Lost the black lines so went over with a white pen from the same set. Doodled the stem and added the doodled circles on the left. The sentiment is from Paper Artsy.

On a different note i am one Follower away from 100 which is quite exciting, i will give something small away to celebrate this huge milestone by taking all the names, cutting them up and asking my lovely OH to choose a winner.

Thank you to everyone who visits, your comments are very much appreciated and lets me know someone has dropped by.

Tuesday, 13 January 2015

So many people are loving the first Challenge of 2015 over at the Paper Artsy Blog which is fragile papers.

Some of my storage decided to fall apart yesterday so i had to sort all the items that were stored there and i came upon some Glassine paper that i purchased from Wendy Cotterill in 2013, i am hoping this counts as a fragile paper and also as something new to me as i have never used this product before.

Coloured the Glassine with DecoArt Media Paints Quinacridone Gold,Quinacridone Red, Primary Magenta and Teal Hue, followed by a layer of Fresco Snowflake to know it back a little.

Val over at the Simply Snazzy Blog is showcasing Frugal Crafting through January, i do hope you go and pay her a visit there are some very cool techniques she is showing.

On day 10 Val showed collage stamping, something a technique i haven’t tried before, this is where i got the inspiration for this sheet of paper. Used Dylusions, Paper Artsy and Tim Holtz Visual Artistry stamps to stamp over the DecoArt Media background i made from using up the excess paint from the Glassine sheet.

This sheet of paper was used for more layers in the flower i was about to make.

Macro shots of the completed flowers so you can see the texture from the crumpled Glassine petals and the shaped collaged petals.

Once the paper had been crushed added some Pan Pastels over the top which i heat set as you can see above they look amazing, especially the layer of the White Coarse Pan Pastel.

Monday, 12 January 2015

Claudine Criner Most of us always create a New Year's Resolution and the beginning of the New Year. For 2015 try your hand at making something with your New Year's Resolution in mind.

I have never made NYR as i feel that i am setting myself up to fail so i have taken inspiration from the Scrapbooking and Journalling world where a Word of the Year is chosen,

BREATHE

is my word of 2015.

This word can be interpreted in so many ways which for me means that it will be a positive way forward, no failing.

Recycled a page from my 2014 documented Life Project book that Dyan Reaveley showed me how to make my page more durable. She glued two pages together and added some paint onto the page using a baby wipe, sorry not too sure what she used!

The Paper Artsy stamp Breathe The Love is one of my favourite stamp sets, it is from set Love and Kisses 1. This was one of the first PA stamp set i ever bought. Moon Girl and Hare are both by Daniel Torrente by Stampotique.

Both Moon girl and Breathe The Love are stamped onto tissue paper with a white font and adhered onto the tag with pva glue. Hare is just stamped onto the Tag.

Brayered over the top using Snowflake Fresco as i wanted Moon girl to look a little ethereal.

Added a Signo white pen border around the sentiment and on some of the stars, then finished the Tag off with a black bow.

My NYR or Word is to Breathe…

Hope you enjoyed your visit today, thanks for dropping by and i look forward to your lovely comments.